True: “Some people pursue Ph.D.s to work in academia or to attain lofty research positions. The CEO of Rivian got his so people would take him seriously.” (Rivian’s CEO explains why he got a Ph.D. — and why he chose MIT over Stanford)
20 years into my career, I was presenting some data to a manager that disagreed with the assertions made by someone else on the team. The manager stopped me and said, “Lawrence has a Stanford MBA and you don’t, so why should I believe you?”
He was using the appeal to authority argument. History would show that Lawrence was wrong and I was right – and the project was eventually cancelled (I was trying to show an alternative path to success but management was stuck on the erroneous assumptions and assertions made by others).
However, I decided that afternoon that I would pursue and MBA, and did so, starting 2 years later (had to move to go to grad school). More importantly, I realized that I had always had to fight harder for my input to be considered on projects – as I was one of the very few who lacked a grad degree. Managers and other team members (typically from elite grad schools) did not take my input seriously – unless I, and I alone, came prepared with a lot of data and research to back up what I had to say.
Not having a grad degree in these environments was poison to my career. (I had to pay for 100% of my own college education and had zero encouragement from parents to pursue grad school – in fact, they discouraged it.)
I pursued the MBA so that I never again would be faced with this wall of resistance; later I also earned an M.S. in software engineering.
